knitting squares

After several days of tiny hats on tiny needles, I had an urge to knit worsted weight. Looking through my stash I came across several balls of Patons Classic Wool Merino originally purchased with the Warm Hands Network in mind. But recently the Warm Hands Network changed their specifications - now that the band councils have purchased washers and dryers for most households, they prefer superwash wool instead - so what to do with all this handwash-only wool?

Within the discussions of Ravelry's "The Greater Good" group there is a thread with links to various charities requesting knitted goods. There I came across a request for 8" squares from wool for Knit-A-Square - just the perfect project for this yarn!

The trick, I'm told, to keeping your squares square is to knit them as mitred squares. I've followed this pattern with 74 stitches to start on 4mm needles and the result is a perfect 8" square. If I'd known how easy mitred squares are to knit, I'd have been knitting them and contributing them long before now! Another great thing about mitred squares? The rows get shorter as you go along. Love that!

My plan is to knit up all this wool into squares and then send it off. It'll take a couple weeks I think, but I figure I should be able to get about 20 squares out of the wool I have on hand. The only decision left: thick stripes, thin stripes, or uneven stripes?